Monday, July 22, 2013

Automobiles, Motorcycles and More! (Part 2)

OK… It’s time for part 2 of our review of
some of the ugly, beautiful, weird, rare and exotic motor vehicles that we
photographed during our recent visit to Nashville Tennessee.

We’re continuing our photographic
exploration of the many vehicles on display at the Lane Motor Museum.FYI… The Lane Motor Museum is open 7 days a
week.Admission is very reasonable.It’s $9.00 for adults, $6.00 for seniors and
only $3.00 for youth who are age 17 or younger.

Laurie took this photo of Dawn Marie and
I standing beside my new ‘dream car’!This microcar is a 1959 Mikrus MR-300.‘Mikrus’ is Polish and it means “Little Tyke” or “Midget”.I can’t even imagine trying to leverage
myself into or out of this tiny little car! The Mikrus was built in Poland from 1958 until
1960.

The cars were produced in an old MiG-15
fighter jet plant.Management was faced with
the prospect of laying-off their skilled workforce…and they built many
different products in an effort to avoid the layoffs in what was then a state
run socialist economy.

The Mikrus has a 4-speed transmission and
a 2-cylinder engine which produces a whopping 14 HP! Top speed is 56 MPH…but, on the bright side,
it gets 47 MPG… Only 1,728 were ever built.Note: In 1959 the Mikrus cost 50 times the average annual Polish workers
salary!

This beautiful automobile is a 1935 Adler
Trumpf Jr.This sporty German car was in
production from 1934 until 1941.A total
of 102,840 were built.It had a
4-cylinder engine that produced 30 HP and its top speed was 60 MPH. The Trumpf Jr. has front wheel drive,
all-round independent suspension and an all-steel body.

In 1880, Heinrich Kleyer founded a
bicycle business and by 1900 he moved to automobiles. FYI…Adler means “Eagle”.By 1928 Adler employed 6,000 and was making
60 cars a day, in addition to commercial vehicles and bicycles. The company was
Germany’s third largest car maker after Opel and BMW. The Trumpf was introduced
in 1932, and it became the best known Adler automobile. The Trumpf Jr. is a
smaller version of the Trumpf. Passenger car production for Adler ended with the
onset of WWII. During the war the
factory produced staff cars and ambulances. When the facilities were rebuilt
after the war, they manufactured typewriters and motorcycles.

I warned you that some of the motor
vehicles at Lane Motor Museum were weird and exotic!This is a 1948 Davis Divan.This 3-wheeled car was built by the Davis
Motorcar Co. in Van Nuys California.Three prototypes were developed as well as a military version.These autos were powered by a 4-cylinder
engine and they could reach speeds of 116 MPH.The Davis Divan had been projected to sell for $1,400 each…

Glenn Gordan “Gary” Davis was an industrial
designer and salesman. At the end of World War II, he bought a small racecar
that had been converted to a 3-wheeler–thinking it would make a practical
economy car. That vehicle was likely the
first Davis prototype. The Davis Divan was presented as an advanced,
aircraft-inspired, high-technology car. Only 16 operating versions were built. (2
prototypes, 11 Divans, and 3 military jeeps) The Divan is 15½ feet long, a
massive vehicle by 3-wheeled standards. It’s wide enough for four people to be
seated side-by-side on the single bench seat. Davis sold franchises around the country but
he never began production.He was
eventually prosecuted for fraud and went to prison.The
prototype cars were not sold but rather given to creditors.

Here is another weird and wonderful
automobile in the Lane Museum’s collection!This is the 1946 Hewson Rocket.It was built in Hollywood California by a company…and former body shop…named
Coachcraft, Ltd.The Rocket used a
flathead Ford V-8 that was capable of producing 85 HP and speeds of 90 MPH.This one-of-a-kind prototype cost $16,000 to
build.

In 1945, William Hewson raised capital to
form the Hewson Pacific Corp. He planned to produce the “Hewson Rocket” and
sell it for $1,000. The team at
Coachcraft fabricated the body shape and welded the aluminum panels together.
Hewson’s idea was to give the car a very aerodynamic shape with no projections
anywhere–headlights covered with glass, tail-light lenses flush, and no outside
door handles. Unhappily, Hewson’s
capital was depleted by the time the car’s body was finished.Coachcraft kept the car in their front
showroom until it was auctioned off in 1959 to a used car dealer in Minneapolis
for $650.

Yes, as advertised in the blog’s title,
the Lane Motor Museum also has a fair number of motorcycles in their collection.Most of them are on display in this long
corridor.

In total, the Lane Motor Museum’s website
lists 31 motorcycles and motor scooters in their collection.I suspect that the actual total is a bit
higher…as I noted at least one car from the few photos that Laurie took that
wasn’t listed in their website’s ‘auto inventory’.

As the box in the photo above indicates,
this is a folding and portable “Yike Bike”.This is a 2011 version.It’s an
electric bicycle with a carbon version that weighs about 25 lbs., has a range
of 6 miles and a top speed of 15 MPH.It
comes with headlights, a tail light and turn signals.As you might note, the seating and steering
arrangement is a bit unusual.

The “Yike Bike” was invented in and is
manufactured in Christchurch New Zealand.The carbon version sells for about $5,000 NZ…or just a little under
$4,000 US.Of course there are shipping
costs and other add-ons that can drive up the price.There are several dealerships for the “Yike
Bike” in the USA.These include: Seattle,
Portland, San Diego, Miami, Houston, Mt. Dora FL, Walnut Creek CA and,
strangely enough at least to me, McAllen TX. To see a demo of the “Yike Bike” and to learn
more about this new ‘ride’, just go to http://www.yikebike.com/.

This crazy looking ride is also found in
the Lane Motor Museum’s ‘hall of motorcycles’.This is a 2007 Snow Hawk Jr. X120.This fusion of a motorcycle and snowmobile only weighs 120 lbs.It has a single cylinder, 2-stroke 16 HP
engine that can propel this machine at speeds up to 40 MPH.Can you believe that its intended market was
for kids…aged 5 – 10 years old!The good
news is that the Snow Hawk Jr. 'only' cost $2,500.00…

It appears that the Snow Hawk Jr. is
currently off the market although the manufacturer still holds the rights to
the design.The original Snow Hawk for
adults can still be purchased through another company…for only $16,000+!If you’d like more information, you can go to
AD Boivin’s website (Quebec Canada) http://www.adboivin.com/en/home-adboivin.aspx.

That’s about it for Part 2 of our tour of
Lane Motor Museum’s collection of European, American, exotic, weird and
beautiful methods of transportation.

You wrote some very interesting posts about the Nashville area. I am taking note of the restaurants you visited. I’d love to visit the car museum but I think the grandsons are not old enough to appreciate it (6,4 and 2 years old, and the girl 2 months old.) When we go to Brentwood, about every 3 or 4 months more or less, we go for an event, like the birth of the granddaughter or the birthday of someone, or Christmas or Thanksgiving, so we don’t catch many tourist spots. But I know we’ll keep going up there, so later on we may see more. Thanks for coming to my blog and leaving comments. I have been busy watching the Tour de France every day and knitting and crocheting blankets for the next birthdays – so I am behind again reading blogs.

Those cars look so spectacular in their own right. But despite their age and their designs, they look quite futuristic. Especially the Davis Divan and Hewson Rocket. They both look very remarkable. Anyway, thanks for sharing your explorations, David!